Sitharaman paid respects by laying a wreath on the tricolour-wrapped coffin, which was laid at the Palam Air Force Base.

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Defence Minister, Army Chief Pay Homage to Captain Kundu

By PTI

February 05, 2018 at 11:05 PM IST

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat on Monday paid homage to Captain Kapil Kundu, who was killed in heavy Pakistani shelling along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

The mortal remains of the officer, who died in the line of duty on Sunday, barely six days before his 23rd birthday, was flown to Delhi in a Dornier aircraft.

Sitharaman paid respects by laying a wreath on the tricolour-wrapped coffin, which was laid at the Palam Air Force Base after the aircraft reached around 6:20 pm.

Earlier, Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre and Rawat also paid tributes to the soldier of the 15 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI), by laying wreaths.

The defence minister later met the sister and other family members of Kundu, who had arrived in Delhi to take the body of the officer to his hometown in Haryana.

His body was later carried in an ambulance to his Ransika village in Pataudi in Gurgaon district.

Besides Kundu, Havildar Roshan Lal, 42, a resident of Samba district, Jammu and Kashmir, Riflemen Ramavatar, 27, of Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, and Subham Singh, 23, of Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district were also killed in the shelling.

"The body of Ramavatar was sent to Gwalior," a defence official said.

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